Clinical Instructor stories, share some of you best and most descriptive stories

[AR2010]

It was our first day at the long term care facility, as well as our first day at clinical. I had not slept at all the night before or the days leading up to this, and as I surveyed the rest of my new clinical group, they looked as though they had had the same sleepless nights that I had. We all sat in the open lounge, it was where Mrs. O the clinical instructor, was supposed to meet us. I asked "has anyone met her before," they all shook thier heads no. Someone said something funny and we all laughed nervously. It was 630, she was supposed to be here. I decided to break the ice and join in the discussion, I say something and the group laughs, and then I say something else, and out of my nervousness, I let out an expletive (F-bomb). I see everyone's faces twist into a look of horror and I think to myself "wow these people are sensitive, "I look and see that thier eyes are focuses behind me and as I turn, there she is..................An older African American woman........................she had taught at the college for longer than I had been alive and had the no nonsense look of an old school instructor.

She approached out of Nowhere!!!(How had she managed to walk up behind me without making a sound!)Clad in Crisp white scrubs with creases so sharp they looked as if they could cut your head off, complete with horn-rimmed tortoiseshell glasses that had pearl attachment chains so that she could wear them around her neck, positioned ever so close to the end of her nose, she exuded professionalism, and authority. We all stared, afraid to say anything, no matter, she broke the silence. "stand up and come over to me," she says in a tone that meant she was not asking us, she was telling us. We lined up in front of her, and with her glasses positioned over her nose she poured over each of us with her mouth twisted in a look of disapproval. Put those ringlets up, who told you to wear acrylic nails, why didnt you iron your uniform? I smiled to myself thinkly smugly, I had ironed my uniform, with starched creases identical to the instructors . She approached the girl beside me and said, let me see your socks.....no ankle socks! They must me 3/4 length and white!:redbeathe My heart sank, how could I be so stupid? I had on white ankle socks, how was I supposed to know that she would inspect us like this? She approached me, I was perspiring profusely, uniform check! nails clean and trim check! "Let me see your socks she says.....With the conviction of an inmate walking to the deathchamber, ready to meet his/her maker, I did as I was asked. There crisp and white, betraying me with thier snowy white glow were my brand new ankle socks...I waited, and she did not dissappoint. "No ankle socks!!!!!" it seemed as though her voice had echoed down the hallway. My face burned red in shame...............

I will cut the story short so as not to bore anyone with a long story. :) I will never forget that day, myself as well as my classmates can look back on it and laugh, I hope that some of you can appreciate the fear experienced on your first day of clinical, not knowing who your instructor is or what they look like. Share your stories!!!!

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I'll never forget my basic skills clinical instructor. She would get so upset with us that she was beside herself with emotion. As luck would have it, on the day we were supposed to demonstrate giving an injection, I was all prepared and sitting, awaiting my turn. When she got to the person beside me, I suddenly realized I had drawn up the wrong pretend medication! Horrors! And here was my little water filled pillow waiting to be injected, and SHE was beside me! Horrors! She would have my head and stuff it into the pillow! So, she came to me and I said, I can't give the injection because it is the wrong medication. She said, "you are correct, but you should have noticed that before you drew it up....what are those 5 rights again? I expect you to never forget them again!" And on she walked to behead others. I rubbed my neck with relief!

Well...I went on to draw up the correct fake medication and give an injection properly, but that wasn't the end of the story! The next time we were to meet with her, a few days later, she came to class and had popped a blood vessel in her eye! I'm sure it was from the emotion of the injection checkoffs! I hope I'm not the student who popped it!

[questionsforall]

I think that someone in my class got sent home for wearing black socks to our first clinical.

I remember the first skill lab we had to demonstrate wash ing our hands and demonstrate donning gloves and gown and mask and then taking everything off properly. I could never imagine it to be so difficult or take so long.

[beeble]

Our instructors were not bad in terms of dress, of course we had uniforms, but they wern't strict. In fact, on my very last final, the 50-ish instructor, who is wearing a trendy dress, turns around to mark on the blackboard how much time is remaining, and we can see that she is wearing a thong (the dress wasnt entirely opaque). Some of us looked around at each other and snickered.

[ItsTheDude]

one of my female clinical instructors was tough as hell on the females. she made them bend over and touch their toes to see if she could see their panties through their scrubs and to see if their undershirt was tight enough, so that when they bent over there was no bra/goodies showing. they had to do this everyday until there was complete compliance by all females.

[DirtyBlackSocks]

AR, you're a medic so you might be able to appreciate this one - though they're military related.

We had a Captain in charge of the Instructing side of the EMT-B certification training when I was in AIT at Ft. Sam Houston. He also happened to be a tabbed Ranger - and when we had arrived at our company a change in command ceremony was given the next day for our CO who was leaving.

I had seen the Captain in his Class A's - and suffice to say he had a lot of medals.

Anyway, we used to sneak dip in class and use our canteens to spit in - just about everyone who was a smoker did it, no big deal. On day two of Medic training this Captain shows up absolutely ****** off - one of the soldiers had been caught smoking in a back area during a break period. He smoked the crap out of the entire company, the kind of smoking where you see those wonderful bubbles right before you're going to pass out...yet it still keeps going. For a good hour. When I say he was ******, I mean he was ******. Telling the males that he would kill us, and have his wife bail him out then flee to Mexico if he caught us smoking. Telling the females stuff I cannot post here.

Fast forward to later that day and I'm in the latrine with my battle buddy using the head. I asked him through the stall if he wanted a chaw and got no answer. Open the stall and there's the Captain, staring at me. Walks up to me and whips his hand out to my collar to perform a uniform adjustment - I was pretty well sure we were on our way to Article 15 heaven.

"Did I overhear you saying you had some dip, private?"

"Yes sir!"

"You do realize illegal contraband is an offense punishable by demotion and docking of pay, don't you private?"

"Yes sir!"

"What flavor is it?"

"Cherry sir!"

"Aw hell, I put that crap on my pizza!"

Huge grin on his face, walks out of the bathroom and that was that.

Still cracks me up how you can get Jekyll or Hyde from your cadre, depending on how many other soldiers are around.

[AR2010]

black socks, that was hilarious. It brought me back to the days of real basic training and AIT drill sergeants. Those are truly the stories that stick with you throughout your entire military career................LifeChanging!